Saturday, December 17, 2016

REVIEW:2016 Bowman Draft Baseball (Nice Auto Find)

When you hear the name Bowman and hear the name Draft, you know it means its a prospectors dream. Especially when the entire product is just prospects besides one insert set.

Let's see my take on my very first break of the product.

READ ON!

 
In every box of 2016 Bowman Draft hobby jumbo baseball you will find 12 Packs Per Box and 32 Cards Per Pack. So you get a crazy number of cards. You will also find 3 on-card autographs per hobby jumbo along with a Top Of The Class box topper (I didn't get one) and boxes will run you $125.

Just like with the other Bowman releases, there is a paper and a chrome base set with matching players. The design is the same as well. One of the better designs in years in my opinion. It includes top 2016 Draft Picks including Mickey Moniak, Nick Senzel, Ian Anderson, Riley Pint, A.J. Puk, Braxton Garrett, Cal Quantrill, Matt Manning, Zack Collins, Kyle Lewis, Jason Groome, and Alex Kirilloff. One of which I pulled an auto of so you will need to continue on to see it.

There are also 200 prospects in the base set. So lots of depth.

Both base and Chrome have parallels as you would expect.

Paper parallels are Silver, Blue (#'d), Green (#'d), Gold (#'d), Orange (#/25), Red (#/5) and Black (1/1). I pulled two silvers and a blue here.

Chrome parallels, which you will find at least two per pack, goes as follows, Refractor, Sky Blue Refractor, Purple Refractor (#'d), Blue Refractor (#'d), Green Refractor (#'d), Gold Refractor (#'d), Orange Refractor (#/25), Red Refractor (#/5), and SuperFractor (1/1).
 


I loved the look of the sky blue. That teal color really stands out.
 

Being a refractor guy, I wasn't disappointed with such a loaded box of refractors. I would imagine the regulars probably don't hold much more than base value, but the parallels will and they are pretty sharp.

The parallels aren't the only impressive thing in Bowman Draft. The inserts are probably the best I have ever, yes EVER, seen in a Bowman product.

These Draft Dividends look amazing. They are chromed, refractored and simply stand out. These are of players who were originally drafted out of high school, opted to pursue collegiate careers instead of jumping right in, and in the end paid dividends for their efforts.

These have parallels of Gold Parallel, Red Parallel: sequentially numbered to 5 and SuperFractor numbered 1/1.
 

Fantasy Impact are future players that will make a fantasy impact. Once again, chromed and refractored.


These bad boys give the product some Veteran and legendary depth in MLB Draft History. These have parallels of Gold #/50, Red #/5, and SuperFractor 1/1. Also includes Griffey which now I gotta own.


Other pulls not found in my box was the box toppers. Those also have parallels and autographed versions.

Now onto the on-card autograph pulls!

My first two are from division rivals.


My last one is from the box cover boy. A.J. Puk that is numbered to 250.
 
Parallels to find include,
  • Refractor: sequentially numbered.
  • Purple Refractor: sequentially numbered.
  • Blue Refractor: sequentially numbered.
  • Green Refractor: sequentially numbered.
  • Gold Refractor: sequentially numbered.
  • Orange Refractor: sequentially numbered to 25.
  • Red Refractor: sequentially numbered to 5.
  • SuperFractor: numbered 1/1.
Other autographs not found in my box are, Draft Night Autograph, Draft Dividends and MLB Draft History.

Overall, I think my first break went pretty well pulling one of the top picks autographs. With all of the parallels to find there is some good value in every box. The overall product looks really nice from the parallels to the inserts. On-card autographs are a big plus. Veteran autograph content of some top players helps to. 

There is a lot of depth in the autograph checklist so not sure if every box will provide a "current star" but with prospecting products you are not always looking for the current, you are looking for the future.

Thoughts on this product are welcomed below. You will find some of these cards in an upcoming promo that will be announced tomorrow. Thanks to Topps for providing me the box to review. Please check out their website for all MLB products and give them a follow on all social media sites.

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